Adnams: Broadside

Aaah…Broadside. I’ve drunk many happy pints of it when I’m in Suffolk. My wife’s parents live across that way, which is quite handy as I’m a fan of Adnams beer.

My wife managed to get most of the guests plastered at our wedding by ordering a polypin of Broadside, instead of a polypin of Adnams Southwold Bitter. By the time the photographer had finished it was all gone, as had the minds of a lot of the guests…

Broadside commemorates the Battle of Sole Bay in which we fought alongside the French against against the Dutch in 1672 just off the Southwold coast.

Pouring a Broadside is a joyous experience, even in this current heatwave (drinking and reviewing a heavy winter-style beer in the middle of summer is the lengths that I’ll go to for you, Dear Reader. That’s why you keep coming back, isn’t it?)

A business-like conker brown in colour with an aroma of an almost mid-winter vibe: treacle, dark berry fruits, black pepper and lashings of drowsy deep ‘n dark soporific malt…a little like drifting off to sleep in front of a log fire at Christmas. Not much in the way of hop aroma, but in a beer like this it doesn’t matter…

The taste is very definitely malt-led, heavy, sumptuous, velvety mouth feel…with as much body as dear old Barry White. There’s a hop bitterness there, but it doesn’t dominate or intrude. A remarkably “together” beer – in that it’s damned tasty, perfectly joined-up and not at all weird or challenging.

At 6.3% Broadside will happily steam you over the horizon to either unconsciousness or high jollity. Put some on your shopping list for Christmas, or buy it now and sleep the current heatwave away!

I think I picked this up from Asda on some “three for a fiver” sort of deal. Asda don’t seem to have got in touch yet with that case of beer. Email me at jon at yeastismybitch dot com. Go on. You know you want to…